Synthetic Alcohol Promises Mild Drunkenness and Zero Hangovers

An entirely new kind of legal high could be on the way to the pubs of the high street, if drug researchers manage to get past EU regulations and get their "Alcosynth" onto the market.

It's a potential world-changer, they say, as the mild form of benzodiazepine has the ability to create a slight type of intoxication, but without going so far that you vomit on a bus seat, leave your phone somewhere, eat a burger off the floor and have to take the next day off work.

The synthetic alcohol is also very exciting as its consumption won't batter the liver according to one of its creators and former UK (legal) drugs tsar Professor David Nutt, who hopes the safer, lighter drink might make the high street within a few years -- if regulatory hassles can be sorted.

"Think tank" the Adam Smith Institute says the sort of regulation that made it extremely tough for ecigs to gain traction could block this safer form of alcohol from taking off here, with the Institute's Sam Bowman saying: "It is crucial that the government does not stand in the way of hangover-free alcohol. Regulation must be flexible and encouraging of new products that are safer than the vices they're competing with." [Sky News]